A SUPPORTER of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno wrote Solicitor-General Jose C. Calida urging him to file a quo warranto petition against Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-De Castro.
In her letter, Ms. Jocelyn Marie F. Acosta invoked the same grounds cited by suspended lawyer Eligio Mallari in questioning Ms. Sereno’s appointment via quo warranto, noting that Ms. De Castro also failed to submit all her SALNs before the Judicial and Bar Council when she applied for her current position.
Ms. Acosta said Ms. De Castro also benefited from the JBC adjustment to accept at least 10 SALNs instead of all previous statements, as this is “not a Constitutional requirement but a JBC requirement which the JBC can waive.”
“JBC records would show that Justice De Castro had only submitted her SALNs for fifteen (15) years when she has been in government service since 1973,” Ms. Acosta wrote.
“Being in government service since 1973, Justice De Castro was bound to submit 39 SALNs, but failed to do so,” she added.
“Following the logic employed by Mallari, Justice De Castro and yourself (Mr. Calida), Justice De Castro’s non-submission of all her SALNs since 1973 shows that she also has employed deception in claiming that she has complied with the SALN requirement, thereby lacking integrity and is not qualified to sit as a Justice of the Supreme Court,” Ms. Acosta’s letter further read.
Apart from the quo warranto, Ms. Sereno, who is currently on indefinite leave following an en banc resolution, is also facing possible impeachment by the House of Representatives.
Both Ms. Sereno and Mr. Calida have submitted their respective memoranda on his quo warranto case against her.
Also on Friday, lawyer Lorenzo G. Gadon, who led the impeachment move agianst Ms. Sereno, faced another disbarment threat via a 19-page complaint filed against him before the Commission on Bar Discipline of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).
The complainants are Zena B. Bernardo, Evangeline P. Hernandez, Nona D. Andaya-Castillo and Natividad dela Cruz Natividad, who witnessed Mr. Gadon during the confrontation in Baguio. They were joined by student leaders Jose Mari Tomines Callueng and Mark Vincent Lim.
The complaint acused Mr. Gadon of “gross misconduct, gross immoral conduct and violation of his oath as a lawyer and the Code of Professional Responsibility,” when he reportedly shouted expletives and made obscene gestures at protesters in Baguio City expressing support for Ms. Sereno during the SC’s summer session there. — Minde Nyl R. Dela Cruz and Charmaine A. Tadalan

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